Pokemon M : Ambitions
by The Fabricator
Summary: The world of Pokemon is not as cute as the show would have you believe. Pokemon roam the wilds, and for those who are not trainers there is barely enough safety in numbers to travel between towns. And for those who are, the responsibilities may kill you.
1. Beginnings

Author's Note : I do not own pokemon. That would be Nintendo.

* * *

><p>"So, you want to be a trainer?" asked the short redheaded woman in the lab coat.<p>

"Yes, professor!" came the resounding answer from the thirty or so potentials that year. They were all crowded around four adults in white coats who in turn stood before the entrance to a dim cave. The potential pokemon trainers gathered were all fairly young, the oldest no more than fourteen, and with a few exceptions looked a mixture of nervous and excited.

"Okay then," called the red-haired professor, "Please line up in front of Professor Oak to get your poke balls." She pointed towards the professor with graying brown hair before continuing, "Once you've done that, then please follow Professor Aspen inside the Cave of Genesis," finishing her statement with a gesture towards the rail-thin professor with the slicked back hair.

Professor Oak heaved the large backpack he was wearing to the ground and began to unzip it. As soon as the bag touched the dirt, though, he was bull rushed by the children and knocked to the ground. Amid the chaos, Oak's calls of, "Three! No more than three per person!" were barely audible and completely ignored.

Oak managed to scrabble to his feet, and hurried back to the other three professors, who were all attempting to stifle their snickering with varying degrees of success.

"Little monsters, I tell you," muttered the second eldest professor, brushing dirt and small footprints from his coat, "I've seen rattata who were better behaved."

The eldest professor shook his head, the crinkle of laughter still visible on his face. "It's alright, Oak, I'll handle it," the large, dark-skinned man said as he took a step forward. At once his face shifted from that of a jolly old man to one more akin to a drill sergeant as he shouted in a thunderous voice, "Alright, that's enough!" Instantly the children froze, one in mid punch.

Professor Oak stepped forward, muttering a word of thanks to the larger man before addressing the gathered potentials, "Who doesn't have three poke balls? Anyone?" When no one spoke up, Oak continued, "Alright then, please follow Professor Aspen inside, he will explain what you will need to do."

Professor Aspen blinked at the children who were now staring at him, then called out in a surprisingly deep voice for his figure, "After me, kiddos!" before turning and entering the dimly lit cave. He was quickly followed by the children and the other professors minus Oak who had stopped to retrieve the bag that had moments ago been filled with poke balls.

Inside the cave, Professor Aspen's base voice lectured the potentials. "In this cave you will find your first partner in your journey as a trainer. Each of you will be chosen by a pokemon, and you must catch it with one of your poke balls. Any questions?"

Several hands immediately shot into the air. The professor's beady eyes locked onto one hand and nodded at the boy it belonged to.

"Sir, is this dangerous at all?" the boy asked, hesitation clear in his tone.

Professor Aspen tugged on his goatee a moment before responding, "No, not terribly. The worst that might happen is you getting bitten by something, but the other professors and I are here, so just run or call for help if something is too much for you. Girl in the marill shirt, you had a question?"

The young girl, no more than eleven, stared pointedly at the ground as she asked, "How will we know if a pokemon chooses us?" The remaining hands in the air immediately dropped to their owners' sides as the question they had been meaning to ask was voiced.

Aspen smiled, and with a mischievous tone replied, "Oh, you'll know. Now then, off you go!" Aspen waved his hands in the air, shooing the children into the den.

"Be careful!" the red-haired professor called after them as the potentials ran happily off into the deeper portions of the cavern.

Deeper in the cave, two young brothers shoved each other around playfully, neither scared in the slightest of the dark hole they were in.

"Nuh-uh, Max, I'm gonna catch one first!" one laughed at the other, knocking him into a wall as he dashed past his sibling.

The second brother chased after the first, calling out after him, "No, it's so gonna be me! I'm gonna catch a cyndaquill just like dad did!" Max turned a corner after his brother and immediately collided into him.

"Ow, Matt, why'd you..." Max trailed off as he saw the little reddish lizard with a flaming tail standing on the ground in front of them. "Oh wow, a charmander! Let's catch it!" he said with a whoop.

"I think it's supposed to pick us first, isn't that what-" Matt's question was cut off as the charmander reared back onto its hind legs and leapt at him, hissing wildly. The twelve year old was knocked from his feet as the lizard pegged him square in the chest and began to claw at his face. "Max, help!" the boy cried as the charmander's small claws bit into his skin and drew blood.

Max yelled incoherently as he wrapped his hands around the charmander's scaly hide and pulled it away from his brother, flinging it further into the cave. He looked down at his brother's bleeding face and shook him, saying, "Matt! Matt, please be okay!"

Matt knocked his brother's hands away with a sweep of his arm and stood up, facing the charmander that was now circling him, waiting for another chance to attack. Blood dripped from the gashes in the twelve year old boy's face, but his eyes tracked the lizard, determined to catch the pokemon that had chosen him even as his brother backed away.

The charmander leapt forward again, swinging its miniature claws in a wide downward arc towards the boy's injured face. Matt stepped back as it did, and its claws instead bit through his t-shirt and into the flesh of his chest underneath. He winced slightly but stood his ground, and as the pokemon touched the ground he swung his back foot forward with all his might in a wild kick. The orange lizard went flying back and into one of the cave's walls as the kick connected with its side, stunning it.

"Matt! Use the poke ball!" called the boy's brother from the sidelines of the fight. Matt nodded in response and pulled one of the small balls from his pocket and threw it towards the recovering pokemon.

* * *

><p>Eight Years Later<p>

It was a calm day in Slateport City, the wind barely bringing any waves to the shore. At the end of a stone dock sat a young black haired man, gazing out to the see with his feet dangling above the water. Next to him, napping in the sun, lay a large charmander, its scales glinting a light reddish hue in the light of the sun.

"Hey, Matt!" called a female voice from down the dock. A moment later the light taps of the owner's footsteps became audible over the calls of the wingulls as they dove for magicarp in the sea. Matt greeted his friend with a grin and a nod.

"Hey, Jess. What's up?" he asked as the girl took a seat next to him on the edge of the dock.

"Oh, just wandering. Slow day, ya know?" she grinned, throwing an arm around Matt's shoulders, "So what're you up to? Thinking about leaving us all behind and going on an epic journey again?" At Matt smirking nod, Jess threw herself to her full height, framed against the sun and declared, "Now that will not do! You are going to take me to the Beachfront Cabana and buy me dinner and we will have a right good time. C'mon!"

Matt relented, allowing the girl to tug him to his feet, returning his charmander to its poke ball as she pulled him further down the dock.


	2. Rampage

The Beachfront Cabana was still empty, the dinner crowd not having moved in yet. The spacious building's wide open windows provided a wide view of the sea, and allowed plenty of natural light to cast itself about the slim, wooden tables and chairs scattered about with more of a mind for aesthetics than seating room. Only three tables had anyone sitting at them.

"So why do you want to travel on your own?" asked Jess as she moved some tentacool calamari around her half-full plate with a fork, staring across the table at her dining partner without the bill of her favorite hat shadowing her face. Her red and white league expo hat hung on the corner of her chair, brushed every now and again by her ponytail.

Matt paused mid-chew for a moment, then shrugged and swallowed the fried morsel. "I dunno, Jessie. I guess I've just never been one for settling down. There's a whole world out there, after all." He absentmindedly twirled a bit of fried tentacool meat around on his fork before continuing. "What about you? Don't you plan on leaving with your dream of becoming a master-ranked trainer?" he asked, taking another bite of calamari.

Jessie sighed, leaning back and rolling her eyes. As a look of bewilderment crossed Matt's face, she explained, "Matt, the point isn't that you want to travel. I'm asking why you have to do it alone."

Matt smirked, jabbing his fork accusingly at the short brunette sitting across from him, "Hey now, I never said I was planning on going alone. You were the one who so blatantly began trying to get rid of me."

Before Jessie could respond, a wailing klaxon sounded from the city proper. Almost immediately after the warning began to ring out, Matt's pokegear began vibrating, its ring lost in the wail of the siren. As he pulled it from his pocket to check the received message, Jessie's gear vibrated as well. The message from their employer was short : _North Gate_.

The two trainers traded a quick glance, then stood at once. Jessie quickly shoveled the remaining calamari into a red and blue storage ball as Matt grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, pulling out two one thousand PD bills and placing them on the table. They rushed out of the Cabana, passing by one of the waiters who was hurriedly flipping the 'open' sign to 'closed'.

"What do you think happened?" Jessie called after Matt, adjusting her hat as she ran.

"Hell if I know," came the older trainer's quick reply. "I expect we're about to find out, though," he continued as they passed the docks and entered the city proper and found the city guard deploying themselves to the north and passing the two of them as they ran south to defend the Slateport shipyard, "Is the city under attack or so-"

"I think it is!" Jessie cut Matt off, pointing towards the north gate of the city. The twenty foot tall steel door buckled with a thunderous crash, deforming even further than it had been a moment before as something very large slammed into its other side. The two trainers sped their pace further, slow muffled thuds from the other side of the gate now audible. Even at their current distance Matt could see the white coat and fiery tuft of hair that was their employer, Professor Pine, contrasting with the spears and dull blue and gray armor of the men and women of the Slateport Guard. Next to her was the massive sentient mound of dark sludge that she called Slimer. He did not see his brother's red polo standing out near her.

"Professor Pine, what's going-" Jessie began before Pine motioned at her to be quiet. From the other side of the gate, the muffled plodding had stopped. Atop the city wall, ten crossbowmen of the Slateport Guard stood ready, their weapons trained on something beyond the opaque border of the city wall. A moment passed. And then another.

"Release your pokemon," ordered Professor Pine. A flash of white light greeted the arrival of four new pokemon: a small blue crocodilian with red spines on its back and a man-sized dark blue bird with a red neck and a split tail near Jessie, and a large red lizard with a flickering flame on the tip of its tail and a small blue bulb with red eyes and a head of green leaves near Matt.

"Professor, where's Max?" asked Matt, his eyes scanning over the assembled defenders to confirm that his brother was not among them.

"I don't know where Maxwell is, he won't respond to my messages," came the professor's quick response.

"It's coming back!" yelled one of the guardsmen, tensing his crossbow against his shoulder as the loud thuds resumed and began to pick up pace.

"Aim for the eyes!" the arbalist corporal called, "Fire!"

With a series of thunks, the rangers' weapons loosed their metal bolts into the distance. A second later the air shook with an inarticulate roar of pain and rage as the thudding of what could only be massive footsteps quickly grew closer.

"Reload and fire again!" ordered the corporal, already drawing back his weapon's bowstring and loading another bolt. He and two others managed to loose a second volley before their target reached the wall, the sudden lurch knocking an arbalist from his perch to the paved stone on the inside of the wall. The steel doors crashed violently open with a hideous screech of wrenching metal, one tearing free of the wall and sending shards of stone and mortar flying a short distance into the armored figures of the guard as it collapsed onto a guardswoman who had been standing too close. The stunned guard didn't even have a chance to shout as she was crushed into ground meat under the twisted metal of the broken gate.

"Gods," breathed Jessie, staring in horror at the colossal beast that stood nearly as tall as the frame of the shattered north gate.

Before the defenders, breathing heavily and bleeding from dozens of miniscule bolt wounds around the hairless hide of its chest and face stood a gargantuan creature of beige skin, dark blue fur, blubber, and teeth. The snorlax's malice-filled beady eyes scanned the twenty armored figures brandishing spears before it, and paused for a moment on the three trainers and their five pokemon. The monster opened its mouth wide and bellowed an earth shaking roar of defiance as it once again began to charge.

Professor Pine's mouth set into a stiff line as the city guard lowered their spears to intercept the charging pokemon. Three guards lanced their weapons into the snorlax's gut, , and several others managed to stab shallowly into its sides as it passed, but it did not slow. One of the three brave guards managed to dive out of the giant's way and save herself, but the others were not so lucky. The second guard was caught in a forward sweep of the pokemon's foot, taking the kick to the chest and flying back through the air some fifteen feet before crashing into a stone fountain and shattering his spine while the third did not manage to dive away in time and was crushed into a fine red paste beneath the monster's foot. Four more metal bolts struck the snorlax in the back from the remaining rangers on the wall, but it didn't react at all.

"Slimer, hit it in the eyes. You two, let's go!" ordered the professor, already dashing out of the snorlax's way as her muk grew and arm and slung it forward, sending a ball of sludge towards the charging giant's face. Jessie grabbed her totodile and Matt his oddish as both trainers, Jessie's swellow, and Matt's charmander followed Pine. The snorlax swung an arm up in front of its face to protect its eyes, the muk's sludge splattering against its fur. It continued on, avoiding the goopy pokemon even as the slime on its arm began to smoke and eat away at its hide.

"It's headed towards the residential district! Move!" the guard sergeant called out, pulling a radio from his belt.

"Let's go!" called Professor Pine, returning Slimer to its poke ball and throwing out another. From the new ball burst a heavy tusked creature of gray and black. "Jessie, follow it from above, Matthew and I will follow on the ground. Go," the professor ordered, already clambering aboard the donphan using one of its tusks as step up, Matt and his charmander clambering up after her, his oddish still in hand. "Mammon, after it," Pine ordered her pokemon, and it began its pursuit.

"Stay safe!" Matt called back to Jessie as the donphan lumbered after the rampaging giant. Moments later the shadow of a swellow and its rider passed overhead as Matt and the professor entered the residential district. The snorlax was facing off against five guardsman, one of whom was perched in a saddle atop a gray four legged pokemon with a wicked horn and a body covered in armored plates. The rider guardsman willed his mount forward, lowering his long spear at the snorlax's chest as his rhyhorn charged. The snorlax lowered itself, appearing to be getting ready for impact with the rider, but a moment later it soared the guardsmen and landed heavily with a crunch behind them before continuing its charge deeper into the city.

"That's a snorlax, right professor?" asked Matt, clinging tightly to the charging donphan's armored plates as they passed the guard who was now trying to turn his rhyhorn around, "Why isn't it going for the open market? That's where all the food is."

Professor Pine pulled out her pokegear and tapped at it quickly with one hand, the other hooked under one of her pokemon's plates to secure her seating as they followed the snorlax around a corner that led off the long main street of the residential district.

"Jessie, can you see what it's going for?" the professor asked into the device.

"I can't be sure," came Jessie's voice, muffled by wind, "I think it might be going for the lab, there's not much else down this road!"

The professor flipped her pokegear shut and patted her donphan just above its eye. "Faster if you could, Mammon." As the pokemon sped up, Pine called back to her enforcer, "Get ready to engage from a distance, we can't take it at close range!"

Matt nodded, turning to the charmander and oddish at his side, both of whom were clinging tightly to the donphan with claws and leaves respectively. "Alright, when we get in range hit it with some Jotean Fire," Matt ordered, his pokemon nodding in response. Up ahead of the professor and her enforcer the rampaging snorlax changed its course again, now headed towards a building near the end of the street. The professor's pokegear rang, and she flipped it open to see Jessie's wind-worn face, the shadow of her swellow visible on the ground directly behind the snorlax.

"It's definitely going for the lab, Professor! And I think I see someone in one of the windows...Professor, I think Maxwell is still in the lab!" came the flier's panicked report, "Oh gods, it's about to-"

With a loud crunch of shattering wood and cement the snorlax smashed through the wall of the lab. It fell forward, crushing much of the remaining building under its bulk, then began to haul itself up again, the spears that had been sticking out of its gut now jammed all the way in.

"Professor, there was definitely someone in there who got crushed, and it looks like Max's shirt...his pikachu is there! Cheeks is alive and it's attacking!" came the voice over the pokegear, and sure enough bright sparks of electricity lanced out from a corner of the shattered building and into the large monster. Matt felt a pang of remorse, but quickly bottled it. No time for grief in the midst of battle.

"Pluto, slime it!" Matt yelled to his oddish as the donphan got within ten yards of the now risen snorlax, which had proceeded to stomp about trying to crush the tiny rodent that was still striking it with powerful shocks. The oddish leapt from the donphan's back, rolling to a quick halt as it struck the ground, and began to spew a stream of dark fluid towards the giant. "Kojack-" Matt began, but the charmander cut him off with a loud battle cry and spewed a jet of flame from its mouth. The fire met the stream in the air and ignited it, creating a short jet of burning slime that splattered over the snorlax's back.

"I see someone else in the lab!" called Jessie over the pokegear, " I can't tell who, but I think they have a poke ball!"

A flash of white light accompanied an angry bark as a small green dog-like creature with yellow streaks in its fur appeared. The electrike howled as a flash of lightning shot from its body into the snorlax. All the while, Pluto the oddish had sent two more streams of flammable liquid at the beast, spreading the fire across its body. Blinded by acrid smoke from its burning fur and being shocked from random directions by two pokemon, the snorlax stumbled its way out of the ruined lab and into the street. Kojack took the chance to send another burst of flame into the snorlax's face. The giant howled in pain as is hide began to blacken and it fat started to catch. The professor's donphan began to back up as the blinded and screaming giant stumbled towards it, Matt's oddish bouncing after them looking mildly deflated from its part in the attack. Jessie's swellow hovered above the smoldering wreckage of the lab, her totodile spraying down jets of water to put out the numerous fires before they spread.

"Finish it!" called a voice from behind Matt, accompanied by the thuds of heavy footsteps. The rhyhorn riding guardsman barreled past, hurling his lance through the air like a javelin. The long metal weapon pierced into the burning snorlax's chest just seconds before rhyhorn and rider smashed into its left leg with a crunch of bone. He fell to the ground and rolled, returning his rhyhorn to the blue and red great ball that housed it as the snorlax fell howling behind him, its broken leg unable to support its weight. The guardsman quickly distanced himself from the now flailing animal, its claws sending up shards of stone and dirt as they ground into the pavement. Now that the armored rider was no longer mounted on his rhyhorn, Matt noticed the dark gray sash he wore, marking him as Captain Esclat of the Slateport Guard.

"Finish it," the captain ordered, pointing at two of the spear-wielding guardsmen who had arrived in his wake. They hurried past him towards the dying snorlax as the captain approached Matt and Professor Pine, both of whom had dismounted the professor's donphan during the captain's final assault. The snorlax barely moved as the two guards thrust their spears through its eyes, and then again through its chest with a meaty squelch.

Matt picked up his slightly shriveled oddish as he ran towards the collapsed lab, Kojack hot on his heels. Up ahead, Jessie was landing her swellow right in front of the wreckage, her face split in a relieved grin. As Matt arrived at the wreckage, his heart skipped a beat. There, standing in the rubble shirtless, bleeding, bruised, covered in dust, and with a pikachu on his shoulder, was Max. His back was to them at the moment, his attention instead on the electrike he was petting.

"You did good, Romero," he told the dog as he scratched under its chin, eliciting a happy yip. He turned and waved at the two trainers who stood where the building's front wall once was. "Hey, you guys. Are you both o-" he began before being winded by his older brother's sudden bear hug.

"You complete asshole!" scolded Matt, placing his younger sibling down, "You weren't even supposed to be at the lab today, when Jessie said she spotted a corpse-"

"A corpse?" Max interrupted, a look of horror plainly visible on his face, "Oh shit, where?" Jessie pointed to a spot near the damaged south wall, and sure enough there was the body of a young woman wearing one of Max's long red polo shirts and nothing else. Her once pretty features were now crushed and distorted, and a rebar rod stuck at an angle out of her chest.

"Oh," was all Matt could say as he looked down on the still dripping body of the familiar-looking girl. A name came to him as he recognized the girl who once worked the open market's poffin stall. "Ashley, right?"

Max just closed his eyes and nodded, turning his back to the body. He opened his eyes and surveyed the damage. Shattered computer screens, twisted machinery, dripping chemicals, and burned papers littered the rubble. Standing near Jessie were Professor Pine and Captain Esclat. The professor's normally calm and collected mask was cracking, her mouth twitching every few seconds as she watched the chemicals in the back of the lab dripping to the floor. The captain had removed his helmet, and his weatherworn face took in the damage without flinching.

"Well. I suppose that's that," Professor Pine snapped at the guard captain, turning away from the ruined laboratory and walking back towards her donphan.

"Kimberly, you know we don't have much experience with land based threats," Captain Esclat responded, following her with his helmet under his arm, "The city's defenses are mostly for aquatic threats." Professor Pine stopped, turning back to the captain with an unnervingly pleasant smile on her face.

"My apologies, _Adrien_," responded the professor, putting emphasis on her usage of the captain's first name, "I suppose I just assumed the guard of the second largest city in Hoenn would be able to stop a _single_ rampaging pokemon before it penetrated this far into the city!"

"My apologies, but we normally don't have much trouble with land based assaults as the city is built on a peninsula with the Mauville City gym providing protection from the mainland north, _Professor_," came the captain's defensive response. Captain Esclat froze when he realized what he had just said. A flash of worry crossed his face as the implication struck him. "You don't think that Mauville-"

"I have no way of knowing, Captain. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to clean up this mess as best I can." Pine flashed a glare at her three assistants. "Well? Are you three coming, or would you prefer to help the good captain and his men clean this up?" The three young trainers traded quick glances, and then hurried after their boss, leaving the hard-faced captain to bark orders at the guardsmen present.


	3. Jobless

The waiting room was about half filled with tired-looking guardsmen waiting on the status of the guardsman who had been injured falling from the wall when the snorlax struck. The other guard who had been brought in after being kicked into a stone fountain had been pronounced dead an hour ago.

"So what's the damage?" Matt asked his brother, who had just walked out of the Slateport pokemon center's human clinic.

Max shrugged, his left arm and abdomen now wrapped in pale cloth. "They rubbed some anti-infection ointment or whatever on the cuts and wrapped me up. Should be at 100% again in a week," he explained as his pikachu rushed over to him and climbed up to his good shoulder.

"Well now that we have that out of the way," began Professor Pine, who was standing up from a seat in the waiting room, "maybe you would like explain to me why you were half dressed in _my_ lab with a naked sixteen year old?" The professor crossed her arms and flashed Maxwell an icy stare.

"Well, you see," stammered Max, his eyes suddenly averting themselves to the nearest wall, "I mean, she was legal, so-"

"Barely. But the legality isn't what I'm concerned with, Maxwell," interrupted Professor Pine, "What concerns me is that you did not take her to your apartment or go to hers. You took her to my lab. It's been what, five weeks since the last time you were caught? You know what that means, Maxwell." The professor extended her hand towards Max, palm up.

"But Professor, we-" Max began before getting cut off again.

"If you say we didn't shake on it, I will put you right back in the infirmary for more than a patch job," said the professor, her face still frozen in an unblinking icy stare.

"Dammit," muttered Max as he pulled six five-thousand PD bills from his wallet and placed them in the professor's waiting hand. "First my favorite shirt, now this..."

"And Ashley," added Matt, who was now looking around for Jessie without any luck, "Don't forget her."

"Yeah, her too," agreed Max, still looking bitter about losing his bet with the professor. "That's kind of sad, she was nice."

"Ah," said Professor Pine, looking towards the door to the waiting room, "there's Jessie. You three don't wander too far, I need to make a call." With that, the professor headed out of the room, nodding to Jessie as they passed one another.

"Hey guys," Jessie said cheerfully as waved, a half-eaten candy bar in her hand. "Matt, the doctor said that Kojack's almost done evolving, should only be about three days until he's a charmeleon," she continued as she pulled two poke balls from the plastic shopping bag in her other hand and gave them to their owner, "Pluto just needed some fluids."

Matt gratefully took the red and white spheres from Jessie, running his finger across the rough tape with the creatures' names written them. "Thanks a bundle, Jess," Matt said as he placed the poke balls into their slots on his belt.

"Sure thing," Jessie replied, with a carefree wave. "Also got you a new shirt, Max," she continued, drawing a black t-shirt with the words 'top percentage' in block capitals across the chest above a picture of a purple rat. "Hope you like it," she added as she tossed it to him. Max wrinkled his nose at the shirt, but put it on without any voiced complaint.

"Anyway, we should probably get out of the waiting room," Matt noted, glancing around at the small number of the city guard who were waiting on information about the two guardsmen who had been injured in the attack. "You guys feel like food? Never really finished dinner."

"I was just about to suggest that," responded Jessie. "Lightning Pizza's still open for another hour," she suggested after checking her cheap blue watch.

"Yeah, sure," replied Max with a grin, opening the door to the pokemon center's lobby. "I am totally up for something covered in grease and cheese," he continued as he walked through the door. He stopped with a quiet thump as he walked right into a rather beefy man with a wiry moustache.

"Oh, hi there, Mr. Stokes," Jessie flatly greeted the man with a quick smile that quickly vanished as she saw the man's face.

"Oh shi-" Max began before Mr. Stokes's fist impacted his face with a painful crunch.

From a bench outside the pokemon center, a woman's scream of rage split the evening air. Then just as quickly as it began, it ended. Professor Pine's mask of utter calm was back in place as she flipped open her pokegear and selected a name to call. The pokegear only rang twice.

"Hello?" answered a lethargic, gruff voice that was nearly drowned out by a howling of wind, "What do you need, Kim?"

"Roarke, where are you?" asked Professor Pine, frowning at the unexpected howl of wind emerging from the device in her hand.

"Just a moment!" called Professor Linden's voice over the pokegear. After several seconds, the wind died down to silence broken by a steady beating of what sounded like large wings. "Alright, I'm sorry Kimberly, what was it you said?"

"I asked where you were, Roarke," Pine repeated, resting her head in her free hand, "Are you flying?"

"Yes," Professor Linden responded, "I was flying to Lily of the Valley. What did you need?"

"I need copies of the research notes. My laboratory was just destroyed by a _freak rampage_."

There were several long second of silence before Linden's slow response, "I was just flying to meet the Sinnohan League for funding to rebuild my own lab, Kim. Random attack from a magmortar."

"What?" asked Professor Pine, her mask cracking into an expression of shock, "Do you think someone wants to stop our P.T. research?"

"I doubt it's the P.T.," responded Linden, "Gary Oak's lab in Pallet City was destroyed yesterday. He barely made it out."

"Let me guess," said Pine, a cold feeling growing in her gut, "Random wild pokemon attack?"

"A wild gyrados rampaging is the official story," confirmed Linden's voice from the pokegear, "But three labs being wiped out by random pokemon in two days doesn't seem quite so random, does it?"

"Have you told any of the others?" asked Pine, "Aspen, Mulberry..?"

"Mulberry is dead. She was meeting with Gary when the gyrados attacked," came the tense reply. "I sent a warning to you, Aspen, and Hawthorn. Only got a response from Jack, he says he's not in Cianwood and is travelling."

"Richard never responds to messages," answered Pine, hoping that Professor Aspen's failure to respond didn't signify the death of another of her colleagues. "Also, I never received a message from you, are you sure you sent it to my pokegear?"

"Might have sent it to your lab, the numbers are right next to each other on this thing." A loud _hmm_ came out of the device's speakers before Professor Linden added, "You know, I _did_ send some data to Jack for his opinion on the P.T. skeletal problem, he will probably still have the records. I'll track him down after I meet with the League."

"Right," replied Professor Pine, her mind filled with half-formed thoughts that tripped over one another to gain dominance in her brain, "I'll let you continue on your way then. And Roarke, keep in touch, alright? Tell me when you find Hawthorn."

"Yes ma'am," came the old professor's quick reply before the pokegear disconnected, leaving Professor Pine in the silence of Slateport's evening once again.

Professor Pine sat alone in the growing darkness for a moment before flipping her pokegear closed. As soon as the device snapped shut, the professor's face was once again a mask of utter calm. She remained sitting on the short wooden bench for several long minutes before standing and heading back into the pokemon center.

In front of a small storefront with a bright neon yellow sign sat a cardboard cutout of a yellow pokemon with black stripes around its neck, ears, and tail holding a pizza box with a small thunderbolt printed on it. In front of the cardboard ampharos mascot of Lightning Pizza was a small collection of cheap tables with glazed plastic tops surrounded by aluminum and plastic chairs. At one of those tables sat three pokemon trainers with an open box of cheese pizza.

"Look, all I'm shaying," began Jessie through a bite of food, "ish dat you were bonin' hish daughter."

"Ad he broge my fuggig node!" complained Max through the cotton wads jammed into his nostrils, "Ad my ribs!"

"Well," replied Jessie after swallowing, "He also kinda blames you for Ashley's being dead."

"Which," Matt said, cutting off his brother's retort, "is completely understandable. It may not have been intentional, but you're the one who took her to the place where she died. Plus you were kind of boning his daughter." Matt ignored the accusing stare his brother shot him and took a second slice of pizza.

"See?" said Jessie, pointing her half eaten slice of pizza at Max, "Totally justified. If it wasn't for your fetish about Professor Pine, you probably would have taken her to your apa-"

"I do nod hab a fedish aboud Profether Pine," Max interjected, frowning.

"That probably for the best," replied Matt offhand, swallowing a bite of cheese, "She's almost twenty years older than you."

Before anything else could be said, Jessie pointed behind the boys and said, "Well speaking of which..."

"Maxwell Hale, however did you manage to injure yourself further in a pokemon center?" asked Professor Pine, who had just arrived from behind the brothers with a cup of coffee. An odd wispy smile was painted on the professor's face as she removed her coat, took a seat next to Jessie, and grabbed a slice of pizza from the box at the table's center. It might have been Matt's imagination, but he could have sworn the professor's eyes flicked towards other people sitting in the food court unusually often.

"He ran into Mr. Stokes," Jessie answered the professor's question, taking a sip from her cup of cola. "Some hurtful words were exchanged along with other hurtful things."

"And he only got a broken nose? I didn't think Adam had that much restraint," commented Professor Pine.

"He also got two broken ribs," amended Matt as he wiped his shining fingers on a napkin, "Probably would have a few more injuries if the guardsmen in the waiting room hadn't hauled Mr. Stokes off him."

"I suppose a hospital is the best place to get injured," commented the professor, taking a sip from her coffee. At the confused stare she received from Matthew and Maxwell, she explained, "Quick service."

"So anyway," said Jessie, watching the professor, "What are we gonna do about the lab, boss?" The professor sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing them with two fingers.

"Nothing. The Leagues financed the building of the proctors' labs, so I need to go see the League about getting funding for a new one," explained Pine.

"Oh cool!" exclaimed Jessie, excitement painted clearly on her face beneath the brim of her League expo hat, "I've always wanted to go to Ever Grande! Do you think we'll get to meet the Champion?"

"No," replied the professor, swirling her coffee in its cup, "You won't meet Avery. I'm sorry, but I'm going alone." Jessie's face fell instantly at the professor's words.

"Bud why, Profedder?" asked Max, his hand softly massaging his recently broken nose, looking more curious than crestfallen.

"I have some other business in Ever Grande that will take quite some time, and you three haven't seen your families in some time. You should go home for a while. Perhaps next time?" answered Professor Pine, taking another sip of coffee.

"So you're letting us go then, Professor?" asked Matt, scritching at his small goatee as he watched the professor's eyes. They were still alert, but were no longer twitching between the faces of the others in the building.

"Well, yes. For now," confirmed the professor apologetically, "When I get everything up and running again, I'll contact you again. Your old positions will be available if you still want them."

"But until then?" asked Matt, returning to his pizza.

"Until then you three are on unpaid leave," answered the professor. There was a moment of silence before the professor added, "How much was the pizza? I'll treat tonight."


	4. Homeward

By the time morning had come, the broken metal gates had been removed from the northern wall, replaced by a unit of Slateport guardsmen. They were stock-still and silent, clearly on edge as they watched the trees to the north. The rubble of broken stone from the wall and shattered pavement had been removed, though some stains of brown still remained where two guardsmen had been crushed the day before. Where each died now lay an empty helmet.

"I always hate this," muttered Professor Pine under her breath as the four trainers approached the broken stone wall that had once been an assurance of security.

"The part where you see all that's been broken?" asked Jessie quietly, glancing away whenever a guardsman met her gaze with their own.

"No," the professor replied as they passed the helmet where a young guardswoman had been crushed under part of the massive metal gate that had previously provided her with safety, "No, it's the sense of fear. Things like this happen so rarely, but every time something of this sort occurs everyone goes into an uproar and acts as though the same event will occur the next day as well. It's completely illogical."

"That's a bit cold, professor," responded Jessie.

"Yeah," added Matt, "I mean, we're leaving today and you'll be leaving soon. That's four trainers gone, and we're the trainers who just helped fight off the attack yesterday. They probably feel like they're losing a lot of their defense."

"I wouldn't call three unranked trainers much of a defense to rely on. Besides, they still have Esclat and that one fellow from Rustboro. They're hardly defenseless," Pine countered.

The guards said nothing as the four trainers passed them, only sparing them the occasional glance as they kept their vigil on the northern path. The professor stopped just before the break in the wall, letting the three young trainers continue ahead of her.

"This is where we part ways. Be careful and stick to the beaten path on your way," Pine said, nodding to the three as they headed out into the world. _And good luck_, she added silently. She didn't believe in luck, but one never knew.

"See ya, Professor!" Max called as he continued down the path with his companions.

"Thanks for the advice, Professor. Good luck with your thing," Matt added as they neared the tree line.

The path between Slateport and Mauville was one well-travelled. It was said that the two cities were sisters, neither able to survive as well without the other. Slateport was a trading town, on a peninsula as it was, while Mauville was home to a League Gym. Slateport provided Mauville with supplies while Mauville provided Slateport with protection. Due to the amount of travel between the two cities, a road was constructed along the coast between them.

"Why can't we take the high road?" complained Max as they walked along the shoreline, the shadow of the raised highway over the water keeping the sun off of them. "Nobody ever takes the low road!"

"We've passed by three people already, Max," replied his brother, "That's a few more than nobody."

"Yeah, we've passed three _fishermen_," Max responded with a grumble, emphasizing the word fishermen. "Nobody fishes off the high road."

"And nobody ever takes the low road," Jessie cheerfully reminded her gloomy companion, "So does that mean nobody fishes on this route?"

Maxwell flashed Jessie a rather rude gesture as thanks for her help in his argument as Matthew chuckled to himself.

"But seriously," continued Max after a few minutes of silence, "the low road sucks. I've got mud all over my shoes, and I swear I smell a skuntank."

"Well maybe we would have ta-" began Matt in reply, but he was cut off by a sudden grinding roar from the south.

The three trainers looked up towards the high road over the water for the source of the sound and were met with the sight of eight armored figures on motorcycles growling by. They rode in a tight formation, and at least two of them had bright red poke balls at their thighs. The eight guardsman vanished down the road to the north as fast as they had appeared, not sparing a glance to the three trainers on the low road.

"What was that all about?" wondered Max aloud, frowning slightly after the retreating bikers.

"I guess that Esclat is sending them to Mauville to check out the city," Jessie theorized, turning to face her companions and walking backwards in front of them. "I mean, anything hitting Slateport from the north probably would have had to pass through there, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Matt replied with a shrug, "Doubt it came from Petalburg, no way that a snorlax could cross the..." Matt trailed off, his pace slowing until he trailed behind his companions. He was scanning the environment, eyes darting across the ground further inland and near the tree line.

"You see something, bro?" Max called back, stopping when he noticed his brother lagging behind.

"Well no, but shouldn't we be?" replied Matt, "I mean, didn't a giant pokemon just rampage down this path? No footprints." There was a moment of silence as the other two looked about the ground.

"Yeah, now that you mention it I don't remember seeing any footprints since a bit after the city," nodded Jessie as Matt caught back up.

"Thing probably came out of the trees or whatever," said Max with a shrug, "Anyway, you were saying something about the high road?"

"Oh, right. Well the high road's just got ends at Slateport and Mauville. We'd not be able to get off halfway to get to Petalburg," responded Matt matter-of-factly.

Max mumbled to himself something that sounded a bit like the word jump.

About a minute later, Jessie remembered the calamari she had stowed in her storage ball. The three trainers snacked on what remained of her and Matt's dinner from the night before as they marched onwards. By the time they finished, they had reached a fork in the path leading to Route 103. The branching path headed a ways through the tree line, but in the distance water could be seen.

"Aright guys, almost there!" Jessie called with a smile, smacking her friends on the back before jogging down the route. The two brothers trotted after her with a simultaneous roll of their eyes.

After a few minutes of walking, the three trainers reached a shoreline. The water extended into the trees to the south and to the north. Crossing the body of water was a long bridge made of stones. Leaning over the south side of the bridge with a metal rod in his hands was a middle-aged man with a chinstrap beard and an orange vest that looked to be made of some sort of scale-like material.

"Howdy, Mr. Andrew!" greeted Jessie with a wide grin as the travelers neared the fisherman.

"Any nice catches today?" asked Matt as he trotted up to the fisherman with his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, hey there you three!" beamed Mr. Andrew, waving in greeting. "I actually caught a tentacool about an hour ago over a meter long, thanks for asking. What're you three doing out here? The Autumn Festival isn't for another few weeks."

"Oh, we lost our jobs so we're heading back," answered Max before anyone could say anything.

"Oh, you were fired? All at once?" asked Andrew.

"We weren't really fired," responded Matt at once, "It's more like the place we worked went out of business."

"Went out of business due to being totally demolished," amended Max with a nod.

"Oh dear," responded Mr. Andrew with a shake of his head. "I suppose that's what all the hubbub is about?" he continued, gesturing to Max's injuries. The fisherman reeled in his rod with a sigh before slinging it over his shoulder. "They're going to be doing a story on it over the radio tonight. Why don't you three spend the night with us? You can listen in and eat, then be back home by tomorrow afternoon if'n ya'll leave in the morning."

The sun was setting by the time the radio broadcast began. The large tentacool that the fisherman, Andrew, had caught was now lying half eaten on the table, fried and sliced into thin strips of meat. Mrs. Andrew had been waiting by the radio expectantly, wishing to hear the latest gossip to discuss tomorrow with her friends. Mr. Andrew was busy cleaning the dishes from their meal as well as his fish knife.

"And now the report on the situation in Slateport," piped the radio, "On scene we have Michelle Spencer. Michelle?"

"Thank you, Keith," answered a female voice, "I'm here with Slateport captain of the guard, Adrien Esclat. Mr. Esclat, I'm seeing a lot of damage. What exactly happened here yesterday afternoon?"

"Well, Miss Spencer," responded the slightly accented voice of the Sinnohan born captain, "Yesterday at approximately six o'clock the city came under attack by a large pokemon that has been identified as a snorlax. It used its weight to break through the northern gate and then charged towards the residential district."

"A snorlax?" asked the reporter, confusion evident in her voice, "Those aren't native to Hoenn."

"No, they are not. Our current theory is that a trainer lost control of his pokemon and it rampaged," answered Esclat mechanically.

"I've heard that the pokemon directed its attack towards the Pine pokemon laboratory. Professor Pine is known for her studies in pokemon growth. Is it possible that this is the work of the terrorist group Team Vector?"

"It's too early to tell right now. No organizations have yet claimed responsibility. As I said, we currently believe that a trainer lost control of their pokemon and it rampaged, likely killing its trainer. Remember, snorlaxes are class-B pokemon for a reason."

"Assuming this was a wild snorlax on the rampage, what about the Pine lab would have attracted it?"

"I don't rightly know. Was never much into science myself."

"Alright, one more question. How many fatalities occurred?"

"Four," crackled Esclat's voice after a moment's hesitation, "Three of them guardsmen."

"Thank you for your time, Captain. Back to you, Keith," finished the voice of the reporter.

"Thanks, Michelle. And thank you to the Slateport Guard for keeping casualties so low," came the voice of the HNN nighttime anchorman, "Next up-"

"Well that was useless as shit," said Max, switching off the radio.

"Language!" scolded Mrs. Andrew, smacking Max across the back of his head as she switched the radio back on.

"He is kinda' right though," Jessie commented to Matt, "Besides the trainer pokemon thing, we knew the rest already."

"Well, I suppose news doesn't travel quite _that_ fast. I mean, it's only been a day," Matt responded, reaching for one more slice of tentacool.

"Not like they ever have any other breaking news to report," muttered Max, sulking at the other end of the table.

Morning had come all too soon, the summer nights only just beginning to lengthen once more. Jessie had woken the boys early in the morning, soon after sunrise. The Andrews had cheerfully provided the three travelers with a simple breakfast before sending them on their way.

"Thanks for having us!" waved Jessie to the Andrews as she and the two brothers left for home.

"See you on the Autumn Festival," added Matt as he hiked his backpack further up on his shoulder.

The path from the sleepy little town of Oldale to Petalburg City lay past a wooden gate to the west. A small sign on the gate labeled the path as route 102. Leaning back over a chair by the sign was a napping elderly guard, his pet poochyena gnawing on the body of a zigzagoon. The small dog sat up from its meal and eyed the three trainers as they approach, one of its hind legs kicking against the guard's leg to rouse him.

"Hey Tom," called Max with a grin.

"Mneh?" the guard said in response as the trio stopped in front of him. Max didn't respond, instead crouching down and scratching the poochyena behind its ears.

"Howdy, Tim," said Jessie to the guard with a smile, "Slow day?"

Tim muttered something unintelligible, still not quite awake. Matt rolled his eyes and picked the small gray dog up from in front of his brother and placed him on Tim's lap.

"Give him a howl, Tom," Matt instructed the poochyena, who promptly complied with a high pitched yowl.

Tim awoke with a start, his hands suddenly gripping a crossbow that had been disguised as a part of the wooden fence. The old guard blinked before lowering his weapon from the young man with the scarred cheeks.

"Thanks for not shooting me, Tim," Matt said as the guard lowered his dog to the ground, "Mind opening the gate for us?"

"A'right," Tim grunted, pushing himself to his feet and fumbling with the lock for a moment before pushing the barrier open.

"Thanks, Tim," Matt said to the twitchy guard with a nod as he headed past, followed by Jessie and Max. The three walked fairly quickly down the wooded path as the gate swung shut behind them and locked with a light click.

"Gods," breathed Jessie when they finally slowed a few minutes later, "I thought he was gonna shoot you again, Matt."

"Nah," answered Max, "He's ex-League. He got in a ton of trouble last time."

"I don't get it though," Matt panted in reply, "How does he always aim it at me? That's like the fifth time he's picked me out of a group. I swear, the guy has it out for me."

"Hey, hold up," said Max, slapping his brother across the chest with one hand as his other went for one of the red and white capture balls at his belt. He stared intently at a patch of grass ahead on the left side of the path. Without questioning him, the other two reached for their own pokemon. The three stood silent for a moment, and then two.

"Down!" called Matt, pulling Max and Jessie down just as two streams of white fluid shot from the grass and whizzed overhead. The liquid dried near instantaneously after impacting the trees behind them, forming a hard shell-like coating.

Three flashes of light heralded the appearance of a pokemon from each trainer. At the same time two red insects with several legs and horn-like protrusions emerged from the undergrowth. The trainers' charmander, pikachu, and totodile lined themselves up in front of their masters.

One of the wurmples suddenly flew into the air with surprising alacrity towards Jessie, the spine at the front of its head glinting a slimy yellow. Less than a second later its forward momentum was halted three feet from her neck by a burst of water from Jessie's totodile, the blue reptile's attack sending the wild pokemon soaring. A golden jolt of electricity from Max's pikachu finished the insect off, blackening its shell and bursting its eyes before it touched the ground.

The other wurple was quickly dispatched by Kojack as the insect attempted to entangle the lizard in another string shot and the charmander responded by belching a gout of flame down the highly flammable gel. It was quickly engulfed in fire, rolling over dead a moment later in the grass. The undergrowth quickly began to brown as the flamed from the dead bug dried it, but the fire was then put out by a quick spurt of water from Jessie's totodile. All in all the battle had lasted less than ten seconds. With simultaneous red flashes of light, the three trainers recalled their pokemon into their poke balls.

"Well, let's get going before we attract any more, huh?" Max suggested as he clicked the pokemon capture ball back into its place on his belt. The others nodded in unison and the three continued quietly, listening for the sound of any approaching creatures.

The next hour passed in silence, broken only by the ocassional russle from the treeline, and on one occasion the tell-tale yips of a pack of feral poochena. A pair of lillypad-headed lotads passed by once, headed towards the river, but besides them the three didn't run into any other pokemon.

"There's the city gate," Matt said at last, breaking the silence. He pointed forward, where some hundred yards off was indeed the gate to Petalburg City, lit by the afternoon sun.

"Praise Celebi," muttered Max, "I can't wait to get home and take a real show-"

Max cut off with a grunt as he tripped over something in the tall grass and landed hard with a grunt. He cried out and kicked at something unseen as his pants split open near his calf, a new wound in his leg oozing slightly. A brown-furred rodent was flung onto the dirt path behind them, rolling to its feet and hissing before skittering into the trees.

"I hate zigzagoons," Max grumbled as he got to his feet, his new shirt's graphic already coated in mud, "Should be exterminated, all of them."

"They did that once in Kanto with zubats," replied Jessie, helping Max to brush some of the dirt off himself, "Don't recall all the details, but didn't Mount Moon explode or something?"

"It was a metronome," answer Matt as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other as he waited for his companions to start moving again.

"What the hell's a metronome? They use that to kill the bats or something?" asked Max as he knocked Jessie's hands off his most disliked t-shirt and began to move towards home again, watching the ground in front of his feet carefully.

"Nah, it's a thing those pink whatevers in Mount Moon did," Matt responded to his brother's query with a shrug as he and Jessie started walking again, "Zubats used to keep the population in check, but without 'em they got to a massive population and just kind of exploded one day."

"Clefairies," Jessie said with a nod. At the confused look she got from Max, she continued, "It's the pokemone that does metronome. Supposedly it allows them to do just about anything if there's enough of them around, but they can't control what they wind up doing."

"So they all blew up? That's stupid as hell," grumbled Max in response.

"Halt!" called the voice of the wall watchman, cutting through the conversation.

"Oy!" Matt called up to the watchman, "It's the Hale boys and Jessie Hawkins! Open up!"

"Just wait a moment!" responded the guard, "We'll have someone down to check you out!"

A minute passed, and then two before the doors to Petalburg City swung slowly open. Three guards clad in the flat gray uniform and armor of the Petalburg Guard were waiting, two armed with crossbows and standing to the sides. The guard in the center had a dagger at his waist and a small black scanner in his hand. The three stepped forward at his beckoning, the two arbalists keeping their weapons keyed on the three trainers. One after the other, the three submitted their league IDs to be scanned, verifying that they were indeed authorized to carry their pokemon.

"Alright," the guard with the scanner said as he finished with the last ID and the other two lowered their weapons, "Welcome to Petalburg."

Jessie sighed as the two brothers took back their IDs and stepped forwards. The doors swung shut with a heavy thud behind her as the guardsman handed her ID back as well. She quickly dashed after her friends, jumping up onto Matt's back and wrapping her arms over his shoulders.

"Good to be home," she said with a smile as Max laughed at his brother's surprised face.


	5. Scouting

"Hale, you're with Geld. Hawkins, with Jenner. Rest of you team up as usual," barked Mercer, the unkempt head of the Petalburg City gym, "Alright, let's go!"

Matt nodded to Jessie as they reached the tree line and split up, she leaving with a mousey looking man who couldn't have been much older than she was as he followed behind a graying trainer, Matt's reddening charmander stalking the ground next to Geld's dog-like mightyena. The weight of the cheap metal and plastic armor of his gym rookie's barely slowed him, though he noticed his feet made heavier thuds as he jogged through the trees. The sound irritated him; he had always been proud of being able to move relatively silently. He could only imagine how Jessie felt, as she was unaccustomed to heavier clothing, let alone armor.

* * *

><p>"So what are you going to do when Kojack evolves?" Jessie had asked him a week ago in his room, "You're going to need a class-B permission for him then."<p>

Matt shrugged in response. It probably wouldn't be too hard to get the permission, his dad had worked as a gym trainer for years and could vouch for him, and having worked for one of the four proctors would be another plus for him.

"What's a shrug supposed to mean, Matt?" Jessie asked with a raised eyebrow. At his next shrug, she crossed her arms and shook her head. "Matt, you honestly have to get on this. They'll put a lock on Kojack's ball if you don't."

"Yeah, I know," Matt sighed, collapsing back onto his bed. He looked at the three foot long lizard on the bed next to him, its tail wrapping around to rest on its back so that the flame at its end didn't set the comforter on fire. He scratched at his first pokemon's neck and the charmander rubbed itself against his hand appreciatively. "I'll ask dad for a recommendation tomorrow."

"A recommendation?" asked Jessie, her eyes suddenly lighting up, "Think he could give me one, too?"

"Well sure, but wha-" began Matt, his forehead crinkling in confusion at his friend's sudden reaction. She didn't have any pokemon that needed a class permission that he knew of.

"That's brilliant!" Jessie cut him off as she jumped onto the bed next to Matt, eliciting a hiss from Kojack who quickly vacated the bed to curl up on the floor where it was far more peaceful.

"Jessie, what are you so excited about?" Matt asked, a look of utter bewilderment crossing his face as the excitable girl snuggled up next to him.

"You know I've always wanted to work in a gym," she responded, planting a kiss on his cheek, "and it'll be the perfect way to show Eric that you and Kojack get along fine so he'll write you a charmeleon permission! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Figured you'd like the surprise," Matt recovered instantly, squeezing Jessie lightly. "So...surprise! Glad you like it."

* * *

><p>"Hold up," Geld ordered Matt, the younger trainer instantly dropping into a crouch at his superior's command. Kojack hissed, retreating to his trainer's side, his tail held high to avoid setting the underbrush alight.<p>

Geld eyed his pokemon, tapping his nose and then pointing into the thickening forest ahead of them. The large dog instantly turned and darted into the forest, its feed padding silently in the artificial twilight made by the dense trees blocking out the sun. The two trainers and the charmander stood in silence for a minute. Geld slowly reached for another capture ball on a belt holster, this one blue with red markings: a great ball. Before he could tug it free, a stream of white shot from the trees and splashed against his hand and arm. The string shot instantly hardened, cementing the older trainer's arm to his side.

"Shit!" Geld cursed, stumbling back from the trees where the attack had come from, trying in vain to pull his arm free.

Kojack growled and turned to face the gap in the tree through which the fluid had sped through, the flame on his tail flaring brightly. The light reflected off dozens of glittery black eyes and slick spikes. There had to be at least twenty wurmples staring back, poison already dripping out of the tips of their sickly spikes. Behind them in the tress sat several white and purplish cocoons, below which sat what appeared to be no less than ten desiccated corpses.

"Hale," whispered Matt's aging partner out of the side of his mouth, "On my signal, we run north. Understood?"

"Understood," Matt hissed back. His charmander had gotten over its surprise and was already tensing for action.

"Go!" Geld hissed back, instantly sprinting into the trees at an angle away from the bug pokemon nest.

Matt sped away as well, his arms and legs pumping furiously to put as much distance as possible between him and the poisonous stingers, trusting Kojack to do the same. Unfortunately, he realized a moment later that he and his partner were moving in different directions. He adjusted his heading, but he was now lagging behind.

Two wurmples lanced out of the trees after him, stingers at both front and back glinting a sickly yellow in the light from Kojack's tail. A short cone of flame from the fiery lizard picked one of the insects out of the air, turning it to ash midflight. The other impacted Matt in the side, its poisonous horn digging itself in deeply on impact and causing him to stumble into a tree.

Cracks spread across the surface of Matt's armor from the hole made by the bug's piercing leap. He looked down at the damage in time to see a small stream of yellow spew out of the hole in his armor around the red insect's stinger as the wurmple attempted to inject him with copious amounts of poison. The stinger hadn't gone deep enough to pierce into his side, halted by a metal mesh in the plastic.

Matt's relief was cut short as the wurmple flexed its back, curling its tail spikes towards his unprotected neck. He instinctively flung his other hand between the bug's deadly sting and his flesh, managing to wedge a finger between the two spikes on its tail and grip it in place. The two spikes squirted a noxious yellow fluid at his face, but he managed to turn his head in time and none of it got into his eyes or mouth. With a tug, Matt pulled the bug pokemon free of his side and tossed it over to Kojack who quickly disposed of it the same way he had the other. The whole exchange had lasted less than twenty seconds.

A skittering of scores of tiny feet reminded Matt that he needed to move. He shoved off the tree and dashed after Geld, Kojack hot on his heels. Shuffling behind them were at least ten more wurmples, one of which leapt after the two, only to be burned out of the air by another of Kojack's ember attacks.

The bugs didn't keep up their chase for long, turning about and heading back to their nest after giving chase for a minute and shooting a few more string shots. Matt and Kojack kept running, just in case. As he ran, Matt wondered for a brief moment where Geld had gotten to. This line of though was quickly cut off as a gout of water struck him in the side of the head, knocking him face first into another tree at full dash.

* * *

><p>"You want to work at the gym? I never knew you were interested in the league," Mr. Hale answered in response to his son's request, his large moustache bristling into a smirk.<p>

"Well, I'm not really myself, but it's pay, and I need to impress Mercer so he'll give me a perm for Kojack," Matt replied with a shrug.

"That's surprisingly proactive for you," responded Matt's dad, the burly older trainer's moustache raising in a smile even as his bushy eyebrows lost themselves somewhere in his hairline, "Of course I'll write you a recommendation."

"Would you mind writing one for Jessie, too? She'd like to join the gym as well," Matt added upon hearing his father's approval.

"Ah, I get it," chortled Mr. Hale, "Yes, yes, I'll write her one as well. Does Max want one, too?"

* * *

><p>"Matt! Matt, are you okay?"<p>

Matthew Hale awoke to a pain in his forehead and a familiar voice yelling his name. He blinked a few times, his sight brightening slightly, but not much. He was still in the forest, and the trees were still blocking out most of the sunlight. He was dimly aware of his back being wet, and realized he had been lying in mud. He wasn't cold, though. Kojack stood at attention by his side, the large reddish lizard's tail hovering near like a campfire. He noticed that Kojack's razor-like teeth were bared, and that Jessie was the only person near him.

"M'fine," he mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his head, smearing dirt through his hair in the process, "What happened?"

"Well Sam came running out of the trees and said you guys were being chased, so we got ready," Jessie explained embarrassedly, "and you just sorta barreled out of the trees like you did and Bass opened fire..."

Matt then noticed Jessie's blue-scaled crocodilian pokemon standing behind her so he couldn't get a clear view of it. He supposed that was the totodile's way of being ashamed for her friendly fire.

"Nice shot," Matt complimented Bass as Jessie helped him to his feet. The armored plating's weight was definitely noticeable now.

"Anyway, you got knocked clean out," Jessie continued, making sure Matt was standing steadily before letting him go, "and Kojack just kinda growled at anyone who tried to get close to you. We were worried about the stinger in your side, but Sam said you'd be fine 'cuz that's what this armor was designed for."

"Good thing, too. Antidotes are pricey," Samuel Geld added in, digging an ungloved pinky into his ear with one hand and petting his wolf-like mightyena with the other. His previously trapped hand still had some white crust on it, as did his side and several of his capture balls. "Speaking of medical treatment, you best tell your charmander to let folks 'sides Jessie near ya'. Wouldn't do to have you go and die because your little lizard didn't trust us to patch you up."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Matt apologized. He rubbed Kojack's neck and the charmander relaxed. "Hey, you don't need to protect me from these guys, okay?" Matt told the reddish lizard, "They're good."

* * *

><p>"Pretty good!" called the gym leader, Eric Mercer as he withdrew his soot-faced and weakened rhydon with a flash of red light from its capture ball, "Pretty damn good."<p>

Matt nodded stoically as his injured charmander limped defiantly back to his side, triumphant. Pluto the oddish plodded gloomily after Kojack, looking mildly deflated from its part in the battle. The gym challenge had been to see how he could handle an opponent who completely outclassed him. Kojack and Pluto had managed to prevail by blinding the massive, armored pokemon using a smokescreen from Kojack to blind it while Pluto spewed an acidic fluid onto the rhydon's horned face for use as fuel for a flame.

"Completely at a disadvantage, and yet you found a way to circumvent Sebastian's armor. There's not many people who'd use asphyxiation to attack like that. Your application for employment at this gym is approved," the sleepy-eyed gym leader commented with a nod as he crossed the dirt strewn floor of the Petalburg gym to meet his opponent. "In addition," he added as he reached Matt, "I award you a stone badge. Congratulations."

Matt silently accepted the small, rectangular brass badge from Mercer, stunned. This was more than he'd been expecting. If he got another badge and he'd be a rank four trainer in the Hoenn League.

"Thank you, Mr. Mercer. I do have one more request, though," Matt said after pinning his new stone badge to the inside of his jacket, "I would like to request a B-class permission to train a charmeleon."

The gym leader nodded once, recognizing the request.

"No," Mercer responded after a moment of thought.

Matt, who had taken the gym leader's nod to be a sign of assent, was crushed.

"But...why not? You saw that Kojack and I can work well together," Matt asked, somehow managing to keep his voice from sounding pleading.

"Well I've only personally seen you in one fight," Mercer answered with a shrug, "I've got to be very careful with fire pokemon perms. Fire spreads, you know." The gym leader began to walk away, heading to the exit of the battle zone. "You got a nice recommendation, and you worked with the proctor of Hoenn for a while, though," he continued as he walked, waving for Matt to follow him, "So stick around a bit, let us see how you and your fire lizard get along in the long term. You shouldn't have too much trouble convincing me you'll be able to keep that char from burning down the city."

"Oh...of course," replied Matt as he chased after his new employer, relief barely evident in his voice.

"Well, welcome aboard Mr. Hale," Mercer said with a smile, putting out a hand for Matt to shake.

"Matt is fine, sir," replied the younger trainer as he gave the laid back older trainer a quick handshake.

"Right on," Mercer responded as he shoved open the door to the simple gym lobby entered with Matt on his heels, "Come on by tomorrow before noon and we'll have somebody show you about."

Matt nodded and headed towards a bench against the wall where Jessie was sitting, awaiting her turn to pass under the leader's judgment. He flashed her a thumbs up as she stood and headed towards the door to the battle zone, her gait a bit stiff. As he took a seat, he watched her mechanically shake Eric's hand.

"Jessie Hawkins, huh? Nice to meet ya," the Petalburg leader greeted lazily, running his fingers through the soft tangle of hair atop his head, "Now come on in and strut your stuff."

* * *

><p>"So did you two find anything?" Geld asked Jenner as Matt waved Jessie off of him and fingered the stinger that was still stuck fast in his side.<p>

"Besides your dog, not much. It got into a fight with a wild mightyena, but Grak gave it a toss and it ran off," the diminutive rock trainer replied, gesturing to the round stone creature floating in the air behind him, it's arms crossed below its craggy face. The geodude grunted once as it was recognized with a sound not unlike the sound of a brick hitting pavement.

"Let's hope the other groups are having better luck than us, then," Matt said, entering the discussion. He grabbed Kojack's tail and ran it quickly under Geld's capture ball holster, the fire on its tip quickly spreading across the hard silk shell still attached to it and burning it away while leaving the leather holster and the pouches containing the capture balls unburnt. "So," he continued as he repeated the same string shot clearing method on Geld's arm, "Let's keep moving. Which direction are you two headed?"

"We'll head south. They can't poison Grak, so he'll be able to clear out that nest you two stumbled onto. Can't have one of those so close to the path to Rustboro," Jenner responded after a moment's consideration.

"You go with Jenner," Geld ordered Matt, "Your charmander will be helpful for clearing out the cocoons and getting rid of any string shots. Hawkins and I'll continue north and keep searching for the targets."

* * *

><p>"We've going to be patrolling the forest," Mercer had told them the day before. His normally laid back attitude was now replaced by a face of seriousness.<p>

"What're we looking for, boss?" asked one of the more senior members of the gym, a wispy woman with a wicked looking scar splitting her face from brow to jaw. Matt didn't know her name.

"Douglas reports that some members of the Team Vector organization were found while they stole from the Devon Corporation factories. They gave chase, but most of the Vectors escaped into the Petalburg woods to the north," Mercer responded, unrolling a local map on the table that appeared to be drawn by hand. "We got the message via air mail, so they should still-"

"Sorry sir, but you said most of them? Did the Rustboro guard manage to capture some of them?" asked the diminutive Jenner.

"They caught one, but it won't do them much good. One of the fleeing vees fired while running and put a bolt through the prisoner's eye," the gym leader answered with a hint of annoyance, though if it was due to being interrupted or due to the prisoner's death meaning that there couldn't be an interrogation. "All we know is that the fellow had a couple of those new trench balls, so we can assume they're doing something in the ocean. Anyway, they should still be in this area," he continued, tracing an area in the forest to the north that separated Petalburg and Rustboro.

"So we're going to try and hunt down the thieves and see if we can get more information about Vector?" Matt asked as he looked over the map. The forest area was fairly large.

"You got it, Hale," Mercer replied, "We know they're involved in various criminal activities through both Hoenn and Sinnoh, but they're not reselling half of what they steal. They hit Oreburgh in Sinnoh last week, taking a golem's weight in mining equipment. The western Leagues are getting fairly interested in what Vector's ultimate goal really is."

"So is the guard gonna be working with us?" Jessie asked from a cramped spot between Samuel Geld and a rather burly trainer with a large neck beard.

"The guard never aids us on scouting missions," responded the scar-faced woman in a flat monotone, "They have to stay in Petalburg in case the town comes under attack while we're away. Most gym missions in any city don't involve the city guard."

"Right," Mercer cut in, "Report said there were ten thieves originally. With the one being dead, there should be nine of them somewhere in that forest. We might be out there for some time, so pack supplies for a week. We move out in six hours."

* * *

><p>"Kojack! Three o'clock!" Matt called as he fired his crossbow. The bolt missed the squishy red wurmple he'd been aiming for and striking a tree, necessitating his duck as the creature soared through the area his neck had been a moment earlier, its spiked head squirting out some sickly yellow poison. At the same moment Kojack turned at Matt's order and spat a small cone of flame, incinerating another insect that had leapt to strike Jenner from behind.<p>

The nest had been a bit larger than they'd expected, containing at least twenty cocoons, most of which were a light violet, and what looked like twenty dried out and partially devoured corpses. Arceus knows how many of the skittering red wurmple there were. The insects fought quite aggressively to protect their nest.

"Grak, watch above!" Jenner ordered as he snapped off another crossbow shot and skewered one of the poisonous red bugs to a tree just below one of the purple cascoons. The weapon clicked as the auto-loader pulled another bolt from its clip and Jenner took aim again.

The hovering stone pokemon turned to look upwards, spotting several insects hanging from the branches above. Almost on cue, three of the wurmple dropped from above, aiming their spines towards the ground, using gravity to attack from above with their poisonous stingers. Faster than one would expect of a creature made from stone, Grak dug its hands into the soft earth and ripped up, sending large clods of dirt to intercept the wurmples with great force. The dirt clods exploded against the soft bodies of the bugs, sending them flying off into the distance, whether they were alive or dead was anyone's guess. Grak began to increase in size, its outer shell beginning to crack as it did. As more bugs fell from above, the rock pokemon began to rip chunks of itself off its cracking outer shell and hurl them skyward, the rock chunks spearing through the wurmple and leaving them quite dead.

"There's too many!" Matt called as he sliced his knife blindly through the air and managed to cut one of the jumping bug in two. He'd given up on the crossbow; his aim was abysmal.

"Retreat and regroup!" Jenner agreed, already backing away from the nest and towards the forest path to the east.

Seeing a weak point in their opponents' defense, more wurmple emerged from the darkness of the forest beyond the nest, raising themselves up and spitting our streams of white fluid at the two trainers. Kojack spat another burst of flame with a growl, but there were too many wurmple firing at once for the charmander's flame to burn it all away. The string shot struck both Matt and Jenner in the legs, hardening instantly and sending them tumbling to the forest floor.

Matt collapsed next to what looked like a relatively new corpse, its legs and arms bound in a white shellac, the only mark on it a hole in its neck just above the collar of its jacket that looked to be the size of one of the wurmple's stingers. It was the fate that awaited the two league trainers.

Their arms were not yet bound, however. Matt quickly began to hack away at the tough strands binding his legs with his knife, and he saw Jenner draw his knife and begin to do the same a few meters away. Matt was distracted from his work by a loud roar from Jenner's geodude. Grak hung in the air, suspended between two trees, its stony hands coated in hardening silk which bound them to the trees. As the rock pokemon struggled against its bonds more wurmples fired string shots, quickly coating its entire body in a hard white shell and rendering it completely immobile.

Kojack hissed angrily as a stream of white fluid pinned one of his hind legs to the ground, quickly turning and spitting a burst of flame at the offending bug. The charmander's tail contorted and swept its burning tip across the hardening silk to burn it away and free him once again. There were still at least twenty of the insects on the forest floor, spread out in an arc near the silcoons and cascoons hanging from the trees in the center of the nest.

Matt was nearly finished sawing through the tough fibrous shell binding his legs when a burst of white came down from above and sprayed against his hands, the string shot binding his hands and knife to his now rewrapped legs. He cursed loudly, rolling back onto the ground to see a yellow spike falling through the air towards his face. Almost in slow motion, he saw a steel tipped wooden bolt catch the wurmple out of the air, splitting through its head and knocking it off course. The dead red bug landed heavily near Matt's head, and he nodded a quick thanks to Jenner who had already put the crossbow down again and returned to cutting at his bindings. In moments Jenner had freed himself, displaying an uncanny skill at slicing through the fibrous silk. Jenner quickly rose and ran to free Matt as soon as he was loose.

Matt didn't pay Jenner any mind as the small man hacked away at his hands. From his vantage point on the ground, he watched as Kojack held his own against the insects, his fire keeping him from being bound by the wurmple and his speed keeping him from being stung. If the bugs were smarter they would have noticed that the trainers were more vulnerable and gone after them instead of the furious charmander. Only...he didn't look so much like a charmander anymore.

Kojack's head was too angular, and there was what looked like a horn growing out of the back of his skull. Kojack stood on his hind legs, standing some four feet tall, his larger fore claws clicking together in the brightening light as the flame on the end of his tail grew larger. Kojack the charmeleon's eyes glowed a dull green as he looked back on his trainer. Jenner and Matt had both frozen in place, both terribly aware of the danger.

A moment passed. And then two.

Kojack nodded once, then turned back to the nest, flames licking about his teeth. Almost immediately he then took a poison sting to the chest.

The wurmple's stinger deflected off of Kojack's newly hardened scales, doing nothing but leaving a yellowish smear of poison as its stinger depressed into its head from the force of its leap. Kojack gripped the bug in one claw and squeezed, instantly crushing it into paste as his jaws opened, unleashing a powerful and sustained cone of flames upon the white and light violet pods hanging from the trees. The cocoons blackened and popped in the flames, the evolving pokemon within cooked alive until they were no longer. The remaining wurmples fled, abandoning the ruined nest to find another elsewhere.

Kojack turned and headed back towards the two trainers with heavy stomps. Jenner had freed Matt's hands and the two were working in unison to free his legs. Kojack stopped in front of the two, stomping one leg and growling at Jenner until he dropped his knife and backed away from Matt, his hands held open in the air before him. The large red-scaled lizard stared down at its trainer, breathing slowly as Matt returned its gaze. And then a gout of flame erupted from its mouth.

* * *

><p>"No way, he gave you a badge?" Jessie asked in awe of the little rectangle of brass pinned to the inside of Matt's jacket. "You know there's people who don't get one of those 'till they're almost thirty?"<p>

"Yeah, Pine mentioned it once. If I recall, you were depressed for the rest of the day," Matt said with a quick smile.

"Well once Bass evolves, I'll be back to get my own stone badge," she replied with a challenging grin, "So you best not get used to being in the lead!"

"I wish he'd given me the permission, though," Matt responded, "I mean, the badge is awesome and all, but Kojack's going to be evolving soon, so I sort of need that."

"Don't worry," Jessie reassured Matt with a pat on the back, "You and Kojack are a good team. It's only a matter of time."

* * *

><p>Matt brushed the thin layer of soot from where he'd been bound off of his armor. Kojack snorted some smoke out of his nostrils before turning to the still frozen in place Jenner. The large red lizard eyed the small league trainer for a moment before spitting a stream of fire over him. The narrow stream of flame set the fibrous shell still stuck to his legs alight, burning it away in a matter of seconds. As Jenner beat the gray ash from his legs Kojack turned to the still struggling form of Grak. A small ball of flame from his mouth set the geodude's body alight. In moments Grak was free, seemingly unaffected by the lack of air from being completely entombed in the silk coat.<p>

As soon as Grak stopped burning the rock pokemon shoveled dirt against the trees and underbrush set aflame by Kojack's rage, quickly extinguishing the spreading fires. It then hovered over to its trainer, pausing once along the way to punch Kojack in the back, eliciting a quick growl and a glare from the fiery reptile.

"Well lesson learned," Jenner breathed, slouching his way down a tree's trunk, "Wont underestimate a bug nest again."

"Wait," Matt replied, pausing in the act of brushing some ash from his hair, "Was this the first time you ever did this?"

"Well...yeah," Jenner answered as he patted his geodude, "Thought you knew, sorry about that. I'd have been toast without your char."

Matt grumbled something unintelligible as Kojack helped him to his feet, carefully spreading his claws so to not slice into his trainer. As soon as he was standing, Kojack pushed Matt in the side, sending him into the tree he'd been lying next to.

"Funny," Matt grunted, punching the charmeleon in return, "Really funny." Matt slowly moved his gaze across the charred area of the forest that could have been his grave. "You really should have freed the rock first, Kojack. Protect your allies and they'll protect you."

"You know," said Jenner after watching the exchange, "I'll recommend to Eric that you get a permission for Kojack." _He could have easily killed us and ran but didn't_, he added silently, feeling it was unnecessary to voice the thought. They both knew it would have been the likely ending.

"Thanks," Matt responded appreciatingly. He took another look at his first pokemon who now stood a mere head shorter than himself, and then to the spot on the ground where he'd fallen. "Wait..." he continued, looking down on the corpse at his feet. He reached down and pulled its jacket open. Attached to a little strip of leather on the inside of it were two badges he didn't recognize. The dead trainer had been a rank four. There was something else on the inside of the jacket, higher up near the collar. Folding it open, Matt found a small pin shaped like a stylized V.

"What did you find?" asked Jenner as he approached, Grak floating along slowly behind him defensively.

"I think we may have found one or more of our missing Team Vector members," Matt replied, pulling the jacket open wider to display the pin to the other league trainer.


End file.
